Options For Pain Management When Your Pain Cannot Be Fixed
There are certain times when chronic pain cannot be fixed with simply physical therapy or surgery. It may be that a previous surgery did not work or made things worse. It could also be that the patient is suffering from a condition such as diabetic neuropathy where there is no surgical option and the patient simply has to deal with the pain.
If this situation exists and the individual simply needs to deal with their pain, what options exist to reduce the chronic pain? There are several options that can provide relief to the patient so they should not despair completely. The 1st thing to try is either physical rehabilitation or physical therapy.
These 2 options are very similar, with physical therapy being done by a physical therapist and the rehab option often being performed by Chandler chiropractors. They can both be extremely helpful in pain reduction along with increasing an individual’s function, especially if completed at an Arizona pain center.
Along with these options individuals should seek treatment from Arizona pain doctors who specializes in treating chronic pain. This way the physician may utilize medication such as anti-inflammatories and maybe even opiates, or potentially an antidepressant along with a neurologic agent like Lyrica or Neurontin. Additionally, the individual may require some muscle relaxants so it is best to be under the care of a specialist to help manage these medications.
When it comes to additional treatment, a lot of it will depend on the particular type of pain the patient is having and what’s causing it. It may be interventional treatments from the pain doctor can help directly so for instance if the patient is dealing with chronic pelvic pain the answer may be a superior hypogastric pelvic plexus block.
This is just one example, another would be the patient is having chronic back pain from arthritis in his facet joints a radiofrequency ablation may help for that or neck pain.
If the patient is having significant chronic pain along the spinal column, interventional injections may in fact do the trick. Another last resort option is a spinal cord stimulator. The spinal cord stimulator does not cure any pain problem, but it can alleviate chronic pain due to the electrical impulses.
The spinal cord stimulator has a paddle with small diodes that are positioned around the spinal cords at the epidural space and gives off a electrical impulses that can change the pain signals going to the brain. This may decrease the pain from those signals substantially.
The implants are placed on an outpatient basis and typically are preceded by a trial of an implant to make sure it’s going to work. The trial is left in place for 4 to 7 days, and if it works the patient receives a final implant. This involves placing the paddle as mentioned around the spinal cord and also involves attaching it to a battery that can be placed under the skin either in the abdominal area or on top of the buttock region.
With regards to the spinal cord stimulator’s overall results have shown an overall success rate of 62%. For a patient who has chronic pain and very few options for which to work with even a 60% success rate can be very welcoming, even if it only provides 50% relief in a terrible situation.
Mail this post
Tags: chronic pain, pain management, radiofrequency ablation, spinal cord stimulator